BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee

Population Numbers, Distribution and Characteristics
The primary infrastructural problem facing all refugee households is access to safe and secure supplies of drinking water.
Refugee households are most dissatisfied with water supply in Syria (43%), followed by Jordan (28%) and Lebanon
(27%), while water quality is of concern to 35% of refugees in Lebanon, 31% in Syria, and 20% in Jordan. 58
2.6.1 Overcrowding
The international standard for overcrowding is three or more persons per room. Overcrowding is related to lack of
resources with which to expand existing shelters or build new ones, planning and building restrictions, and household
size. Overcrowding is most severe in camps in Jordan, where one in three households experiences overcrowding.
In the 1967-occupied Palestinian territory and Lebanon, overcrowding is slightly less of a problem; one in four
refugee households is overcrowded. Camps in Syria are the least crowded, with one in five refugee households
reporting overcrowding. Non-refugee households in Lebanon are less overcrowded than refugee households. There
are fewer differences in crowding between non-refugee households and refugee households outside camps in Jordan
and in the 1967-occupied Palestinian Territory.
Figure 2.6: Percentage of Overcrowded Households, 2004
Sources: Jacobsen, Laurie Blome, “Community Development of Palestinian refugee camps: Analytical support to Jordan’s preparations for the June 2004
Geneva Conference on the humanitarian need of Palestinian refugees,” The Material and Social Infrastructure, and Environmental Conditions of Refugee
Camps and Gatherings in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, FAFO Institute for Applied International Studies, Oslo, 2004, Table 1. Data for the West Bank
and Gaza Strip represents the entire population for 2005. Statistical Abstract of Palestine 7, Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Ramallah, 2007.
Refugee dwellings comprise an average of three rooms. Average housing capacity is lowest in Lebanon (2.5 rooms
outside camps and 3 in camps) and Syria (2.9 rooms outside camps and 3.0 in camps); housing units in Jordan
(3.2 rooms outside camps and 2.8 in camps) are slightly larger, and those in the OPT offer the most room (3.5
rooms in camps and 3.1 outside camps). 59 The average number of rooms in a Palestinian housing unit in Israel
is 4, and housing density is 1.31 per room (1.73 in the south), compared to 0.87 persons per room among the
Jewish population. 60 Housing units in camps in the 1967-occupied Palestinian territory and in Jordan are larger
than in Lebanon. 61 However, housing densities in camps are the highest in the 1967-occupied Palestinian territory
and Jordan, followed by Syria (excluding Yarmouk camp) and Lebanon.
Palestinian households in Israel, including IDP households, suffer from a shortage of land designated for
development. Around 23% of Palestinians households have suffered from land confiscation between 1947 and
2004, while 8.7% of households have had their homes demolished or confiscated by the Israeli government during
the same period. 62 Around 44% of Palestinian households have reported that their inability to build a needed
housing unit is due to the scarcity of available building land. In the southern part of the country (i.e., Naqab),
24.1% of the Palestinians live in tents and shacks. 63
63